Uganda, 2010

I did not attend the High-

level Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs), as I was not yet in New York. Nevertheless, I

would like to inform the General Assembly that

Uganda will definitely achieve the following MDGs:

Goal 1, on the eradication of extreme poverty and

hunger; Goal 2, on achieving universal primary

education; Goal 3, on the empowerment of women and

the promotion of gender equality; Goal 7, on ensuring

environmental sustainability; and Goal 8, on creating a

global partnership for development.

It is only in the areas of maternal and child health

that we may not achieve by 2015 the targets set.

However, in Uganda, we have developed a national

road map to accelerate the reduction of maternal and

child mortality and morbidity, which is a

comprehensive strategy that clearly spells out our

national priorities in this area. In this strategy, we have

given priority to four key intervention types, namely

effective antenatal care, skilled attendance at birth,

emergency care for women who experience

complications in childbirth and family planning. We

have also given priority to creating infrastructure that

supports and strengthens the health-care system.

Regarding MDG 6, Uganda has made tremendous

efforts with respect to HIV/AIDS prevention and

control. We are now renewing our efforts to deal with

the challenges of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

It is noteworthy that, overall, Uganda was

recently ranked among the middle performing

countries according to the United Nations

Development Programme’s Human Development

Index. However, in Uganda, we have never believed in

donor-anchored responses to the MDGs as a

sustainable solution. Responses to the MDGs should be

anchored in the growth and transformation of the

economies of the target countries. I am therefore glad

that the cloud of Afro-pessimism is dispersing. The

opinions of the Afro-pessimists are being consigned to

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where they have always belonged — to the dung-heap

of history.

Some groups in the West, where Afro-pessimism

abounded in the past, have now started talking of the

African lions, no doubt equating in their minds the

performance of the African economies with the Asian

tigers of yesteryear. Groups like the McKinsey Global

Institute are beginning to group the African

economies — which collectively recorded a growth

rate of 4.9 per cent of gross domestic product in the

gloomy years of the recent global depression,

compared with the mere 2 per cent of gross domestic

product that the countries of the Organization for

Economic Cooperation and Development recorded in

the same period — into four categories. Those

categories are: diversified economies, oil-exporting

economies, economies in transition and pre-transition

economies. Uganda was put in the group of transition

economies.

Although the McKinsey group needs to improve

their statistical base and some of their insights, they are

among the first Western groups to recognize what

we — who have been working on African issues for a

long time, on goals we set out to achieve in the years

after independence — long knew was possible: to make

Africa move from Third World to First World, in the

words of Lee Kuan Yew, the former Prime Minister of

Singapore.

Although there are 53 economies of Africa being

managed by the respective national authorities, reform

trends and ideas are sometimes shared. The McKinsey

group estimates that the consumption level of Africa,

which stood at $860 billion in 2008, will grow to

$1.4 trillion by 2020.

What one needs to add is the fact that those

economies have become roaring lions, underdeveloped

infrastructure notwithstanding. What will happen when

the infrastructure bottlenecks are resolved? That is the

question that one should ask oneself. What will happen

when there is cheap and abundant electricity, cheap

road transport and cheap rail transport? Those areas

had been neglected for a long time. The study by the

McKinsey Global Institute revealed that there are now

316 million new mobile phone subscribers since the

year 2000 in Africa, more than the entire population of

the United States. In other words, there are now more

mobile phones in Africa than there are American

people living in the United States.

There are 600 million hectares of uncultivated

arable land in Africa. If our partners could concentrate

on assisting infrastructure development, Africa’s

transition would be that much faster. All the same, a

country like Uganda is transitioning. Aid in relevant

sectors is welcome, but even without aid we are

moving forward.

I know the theme of the general debate is

“Reaffirming the central role of the United Nations in

global governance”. In my short address I have not

talked directly about this. I have instead spoken about

Africa’s economic reawakening as a roaring lion. Was I

irrelevant? I do not think so. It is those strong building

blocks that will strengthen the United Nations.

Africa has been a weak link in the chain of the

struggle for improved governance in the world over the

last 50 years. Improved economic performance in

Africa is, therefore, good for the continent and also

good for the rest of the world.